“One of Them Days” has a couple points of significant distinction, one of them tragic.
As a 100% Los Angeles comedy in location and spirit, it’s the first 2025 release of its kind since the wildfires broke out on Jan. 7. Every overhead drone shot of West Hollywood and other LA neighborhoods, graced by clear skies and untouched mountain greenery in the background, lands differently now than it would’ve two weeks ago. Now those shots are reminders of what was and what is no longer. Even the movie’s poster provokes a wince: The film’s stars, plopped down on a couch on the curb, their characters’ apartment furnishings piled high, to the right of a palm tree in flames.
So the timing is what it is. (The wildfires postponed last week’s LA premiere.) Even so, “One of Them Days” is a pretty good time, made better when its other major point of distinction takes the wheel.
The driver? Keke Palmer, at 31 a seasoned pro, born and raised in Harvey and Robbins, Illinois, with credits spanning “Barbershop 2” (at age 10), “Akeelah and the Bee,” dozens of TV and cable appearances and, recently on bigger screens, Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” She’s one of many alums of Issa Rae projects collaborating on this feature, including director Lawrence Lamont, first-time screenwriter Syreeta Singleton and R&B star and four-time Grammy winner SZA, taking her first co-lead.
Palmer and SZA are an easy on-screen pair in all the best ways: easy interplay, near-zero visible effort even when the movie itself strains for laughs, easy enjoyment for the audience. “One of Them Days” begins at Norm’s diner on La Cienega Boulevard, where server Dreux (Palmer) is the glue holding a hectic shift together. Clearly she’s manager material, and she’s interviewing at 4 p.m. for a job running her own franchise.
Her friend and roommate Alyssa (SZA) is a painter without any monetary gain to show for her talent. At the moment she’s being free-loaded-upon by a half-hearted though fully endowed boyfriend (Joshua David Neal, at one point attached to a hilarious prosthetic). He squanders $1,500 in rent money on a line of T-shirts called “Coucci” and promptly decamps to another part of town, where he’s set up with a vengeful hottie. This leaves the ladies with nine hours to come up with the money, while regular tick-tocks on screen count down to the eviction deadline.
The movie’s not a scramble, exactly; its episodic nature is more like “Oh! Wait! Gotta get back to the business at hand!” which occasionally stalls the comic momentum. Screenwriter Singleton sends Dreux and Alyssa out and around in search of the absconding boyfriend, with a quick-cash stop at a Baldwin Hills blood bank featuring Janelle James of “Abbott Elementary” as a first-day-on-the-job employee. Later, high atop a telephone pole, Alyssa retrieves a valuable pair of dangling Jordans off a live electrical wire, to mixed results.
The broader slapstick in “One of Them Days” is the sloppy side, which is a directorial issue. The script’s better than the direction, with writer Singleton keeping one foot in these characters’ real-world circumstances. That pays off. This isn’t Harold and Kumar going to White Castle; it’s closer to Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in “Friday,” but to my taste, tastier.
Dreux and Alyssa are up against it but unbowed, coping with wobbly self-confidence in the face of economic stress; gentrification (Maude Apatow plays their first white rental neighbor, moving into the only unit that looks like the website photos); nightmarish payday loan usury, with a 1,900.5% APR; and a somewhat jarring climax bringing the armed and fearsome King Lolo (Amin Joseph) to the roomies’ last chance for the money they need: a pop-up art exhibit in the apartment courtyard.
What’s true for the characters in “One of Them Days” is true of the film: Some of the schemes work, some don’t. But movies like this succeed or fail on their hangout factor. This one succeeds, thanks to the best of Singleton’s banter, which has a convincing way of falling in and out of more serious bits, and to the stars.
Palmer delivers an on-the-fly masterclass in overlapping comic skills, sometimes heightened (I love her eyeblink-quick, frozen-statue reaction to the good-looking, possibly homicidal hunk named Maniac, played by Patrick Cage), sometimes subtle and heartfelt. Her keen instinct for pacing, and for propelling an exchange or a scene from point A to B, or C, keeps things energized. She and SZA won’t change anyone’s lives with this one, but I came out smiling, despite “One of Them Days” opening in a week when LA is having one of those centuries. The film’s sweet, upbeat ending feels right, right about now.
“One of Them Days” — 3 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: R (for language throughout, sexual material and brief drug use)
Running time: 1:37
How to watch: Premieres in theaters Jan. 17
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
